Bill seeks to include offence of human trafficking in MPDA

The state government will bring a bill in the ongoing Monsoon session to include human trafficking in the list of crimes covered under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act, Minister of State for Home Ranjit Patil said today.

He was answering questions in the Legislative Council about rise in the number of cases of missing girls.

To curb the cases of trafficking of minors, the government plans to include the offence of human trafficking in the MPDA, he said.

One reason for the increase in the number of cases related to missing girls in Mumbai was a Supreme Court order which mandates that every case of a minor girl going missing must be treated as a case of abduction, the minister said.

Between 2013 to 2017, 5,056 girls under the age of 18 went missing from Mumbai, and 4,758 of them were found, leaving 298 unsolved cases, he said.

MLC Bhai Jagtap expressed concern about such a high number of cases.

"According to the statistic, a girl goes missing in Mumbai every two days, " he said.